


velocity (speed + direction)

by alessandriana



Category: Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Bedsharing, M/M, but they'll work out okay, things aren't always great
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 14:29:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13273413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandriana/pseuds/alessandriana
Summary: "So I kind of don't have a job anymore," Tommy said. "Or a place to live. And did I mention all my stuff's gone missing?"





	velocity (speed + direction)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wandschrankheld](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=wandschrankheld), [Grau](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grau/gifts).



> Written for the Young Avengers 2017 Holiday Gift Exchange. Happy New Year, wandschrankheld!

"So I kind of don't have a job anymore," Tommy said. "Or a place to live. And did I mention all my stuff's gone missing?"

David looked up. Tommy was standing in his doorway, hands in pockets.

David had last seen him at the New Year's Eve party; he’d been dancing away then, looking thrilled to be alive. It had been six days since then, and he hadn’t heard a word. Not that David had been worried or anything.

Now-- he was here. In David's room.

David could distinctly recall locking the door.

"It's in storage," he said mildly, leaning back in his chair. "You were only paid up through the end of the month, and your landlord was going to throw it out. So I moved it." It had taken less than an hour; there hadn't been much.

"Oh. Fair enough, I guess." Tommy scratched his chin. "Kate said I was gone for, what, two months?"

"More like three. It took me a while to find your team."

Tommy mouthed, _my team_. "Don't you mean _our_?"

David blinked. "I... was only working with them for a little while," he said.

"Hmm," Tommy said. "If you say so. Hey, can I crash here?"

David looked around his tiny studio apartment. He had a twin bed, a futon couch piled with papers and books, a full coffee machine and an empty mini fridge, and not much else. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had been over. The dust bunnies were probably growing families by now.

His eye caught the clock. It was 11 pm. New York was the city that never slept, but also the city of really expensive hotel rooms. He rubbed his face. "...sure," he said. "You can take the couch."

Tommy grinned, white and blinding. "Sweet. Hey-- how about a spare toothbrush?"

***

Two weeks later, Tommy was still crashing on David's couch. He wasn't a bad roommate. No loud music, or bringing uninvited guests home, or anything like that. Actually, David hardly ever saw him.

David had gone back to work-- it was just as frustrating as ever, but at least it paid the rent. Tommy hadn't mentioned anything about work, but he was out late into the evenings, and when David woke up in the mornings he was crashed out on the couch, snoring. (David had never given him a key, but he didn't seem to have any problems getting in and out.)

David wasn't entirely sure how he felt about this.

On the sixteenth day Tommy had been living there, David came home at 7 in the evening to find Tommy sprawled out on the couch, an arm thrown over his eyes. He was wearing green-- his costume. David frowned and looked closer. There was something dark soaking through the fabric on his shoulder and onto David's couch.

"Tommy," he said.

"Mmrph." Tommy jerked, dropping his arm. He peered blearily up at David. "Uh, hi. You're home ear--" catching sight of the clock, he changed words in midstream, "uh, late."

"You're bleeding," David pointed out, hand on his hip.

"What? Oh, fuck." Tommy pushed up from the couch and rubbed ineffectually at the dark red stain he'd left behind. "Sorry, I can get it cleaned or something..."

David's eyebrows rose. "Are you serious right now?" Steps short, he retrieved the first aid kit from the bathroom and pulled out the necessary supplies. Beast's medical knowledge made the motions automatic. He returned brandishing the scissors, the rest of the kit tucked under his arm.

"Oh come on, man," Tommy said, eyes going wide. "This is my only good costume right now, you can't just cut it off!"

"You're the one bleeding on _my_ only couch," David returned. "Quid pro quo." He snipped the scissors threateningly.

"Just-- waitasec." Tommy blurred around the edges, and suddenly there was a very naked Tommy sitting on David's couch.

"Oh my god!" David covered his eyes and turned around, the image burned into his brain. Long, sleekly defined muscles-- miles of pale skin-- a runner's physique. David shut that thought off. He was done with men for the moment. He was _definitely_ done with men who were in any way associated with Billy Kaplan.

"Sorry!" Tommy blurted. There were rustling noises. "I can't do just part of clothing, it has to be everything or nothing--"

David tried not to think about how exactly Tommy had figured that out. "Just-- please put some clothes on," he said, pushing his glasses up to rub his eyes.

There was a fraction of a second pause. "Okay," Tommy said. "I'm good."

David turned around. Tommy at least had pants on, so that was a relief, or something like it. He was still shirtless though, which was less so-- at least for David's mental health. There were a disconcerting number of scars across his upper chest. Some of them looked like regular injuries. Some of them, the older ones, looked almost-- surgical. David's expression didn't change, but internally he was frowning as he tried not to be obvious about his staring.

He felt the old restless ache for his powers. If he still had them, he'd already know what had caused those scars. He'd know everything there was to know about Tommy.

The wound on Tommy's shoulder was still dripping blood, and David used that to distract himself. He advanced, supplies at the ready.

The injury was about four inches wide but not thankfully too deep-- a cut through the top layers of skin and muscle but not bone. Anything worse and David would probably have had to drag him to an emergency room. He had a trauma surgeon's knowledge of emergency medicine, but that didn't mean he had the supplies here to utilize it. Advanced first aid was as far as he went. The injury looked like it had been caused by a sharp cutting implement-- judging by the angle and force, some kind of sword. There weren't all that many people running around wielding swords these days. Fewer still operating in the New York area-- though maybe Tommy had gone somewhere else. David made an educated guess.

"So, ninjas?" he asked casually.

Tommy had relaxed as David had worked, cleaning and stitching, to the point that his eyes were starting to fall shut. He jerked a little as David spoke, coming back awake. His blue eyes were hazy. "How'd you know?"

"That's a sword wound," he said, fingers brushing lightly over the skin on Tommy's shoulder. Ninjas were fast, but not as fast as Tommy. Up this close, David could see the dark circles under Tommy's eyes. "How much sleep you been getting?" he asked.

"Um," Tommy said. "I feel like that's one of those questions I shouldn't answer."

David pushed up his glasses so he could glare better.

"...Idon'tneedasmuchsleepasnormalpeople?"

"You're an idiot." David went back to work; the last few stitches went in with barely a flinch from Tommy, and wiping up the last of the blood and bandaging over the top didn't take much time.

When David was done, he thought about moving away. But Tommy radiated warmth, even not directly touching, and the motivation just wasn't there.

"So why aren't you sleeping?" he asked.

Tommy's shoulders tensed. "Dunno," he said, too casually. "These things just happen sometimes, right?"

"Is that a question?" David sighed. "Heroing while you're sleep deprived is really dumb. You're lucky you got out of it with a minor injury like this."

Tommy shrugged. "Well, it would be a lot safer if I had someone to watch my back," he said, tilting his head back to look at David.

"I've had my fill of being a superhero for a while, thanks," David said.

"You absolutely sure about that?" Tommy asked, and batted his eyelashes.

***

That was how, four days later, David found himself pulling his costume back on. He'd had it dry cleaned since they'd gone universe hopping, but he could still smell the dirt and dust of a hundred dimensions ground into every thread. After a moment's thought, he sprayed it with some Febreze.

There. That seemed to take care of it.

Tommy wrinkled his nose when David walked out. "You smell like flowers or some shit," he said.

"I think the technical name for it is _April Spring_ ," David said. "So, where to?"

He blinked, and Tommy was right in his face. "Shanghai," he said, and then his arms were closing around David.

"Oh _hell_ no Speed, don't you dare bridal carry--"

There was a great rush of wind. Lights spun around him. The breath felt like it had been punched from his chest.

"--me-aaaargh." David drew a startled lungful of air. He was on his feet again. Tommy was a few feet away. Based on the tower rising over the nearby river, they were definitely in Shanghai. Over 7,000 miles in, what, barely a second? Two? He was too stunned to do the math. "Jesus Christ. How fast _are_ you?"

Tommy grinned. He wasn't even breathing that hard. "Pretty fast! C'mon, there's ninjas around here somewhere."

"Ninjas-- Speed, we're in China, not Japan."

"Hey, ninjas aren't native to New York, either."

"...Okay, fair."

They found ninjas. Also a secret cabal of sun-worshipers who were sacrificing the locals to their god. That whole mess took a while to clean up. By the end of it David was bruised and aching and exhausted, and Tommy didn't look too much better. When Tommy held his arms out like he was going to carry David back to New York, David held up a hand.

"Not now, dude. I don't want you accidentally running us into a volcano or whatever."

Tommy dropped his arms. "I can run on top of lava," he complained. "I move too fast for the heat to transfer."

David shook his head, and decided not to ask how Tommy had discovered this. "And what happens if you trip and drop me? No thank you."

"I'm not going to _drop_ you." Tommy looked aggrieved.

"Tommy. Seriously. We're going to get ourselves a hotel room here and spend the night, and then we can head back in the morning, when we've had sleep."

Still Tommy hesitated, shoving his hands in his pockets. "It's just, I don't-- I haven't been working lately," he said. It took David a second to interpret that.

"I'm paying, dork," he said, and grabbed Tommy by the collar. If Wolverine's memories were anything to go by, there was a hotel not too far away that didn't check passports and didn't ask questions.

Tommy went without further fight.

The hotel was even more shabby and rundown than Wolverine's memories indicated, but it was still just as cheap, and the little old lady behind the counter was so close to blind David was fairly sure she didn't realize they weren't Chinese. "One room, two beds," he requested in fluent Mandarin-- courtesy of a pack of Chinese tourists visiting NY a few years back.

"One room, one bed," she said back, raising a single finger.

"Uh," David said. "Two... beds would be better."

"All full," she said. "One bed, or no bed." She cackled a little to herself.

Right. Great. David shot a glance over at Tommy, who was leaning heavily against the counter with his eyes half closed. David knew enough to recognize someone on the tail end of an adrenaline crash. Even if they wanted to head back now, David was pretty sure they wouldn't make it. "Fine," he said, resigned.

She took his cash and handed over the key with a gap-toothed grin.

***

"Um," Tommy said, on seeing the room and the single bed. David expected him to complain, but instead he just shrugged and vanished into the bathroom. His voice came floating out. "Why is there a hole in the floor in the bathroom?"

David glanced inside just to make sure it wasn't a real hole in the floor. It was that kind of hotel. "It's a squat toilet," he said, sitting on the bed. The springs made squeaking noises underneath him as the mattress compressed. "They're common in Asia, especially in public spaces."

"Yeah, well, they're weird in Asia," Tommy muttered, but David could hear the sound of water hitting porcelain, so he figured it couldn't be too traumatizing. The sink ran for a few minutes, and when Tommy came out he looked like he'd cleaned up some, rinsed the soot and ash off his face and out of his hair, and had changed out of his costume. David should probably do the same, but he was tired, and the bed might have had the worst mattress he'd ever encountered but at least it was flat, and he was having a hard time convincing himself to get up.

Tommy collapsed into bed like a house of cards, mattress protesting loudly. He curled on his side without even bothering to get under the covers. His eyes, when David turned, looked bruised and exhausted.

"Still not sleeping?" David asked.

Tommy turned and buried his face in the covers. "Ugh, this smells like cigarette smoke," he said, muffled.

That wasn't an answer, but it was as close as David figured he was going to get. He hauled himself out of the bed and went to go wash up.

***

Tommy was a restless sleeper, tossing and turning. David had slept hard and deep for four hours, but now it was apparently his turn for insomnia, because he'd woken when Tommy had elbowed him in the side and hadn't been able to fall back asleep. Tommy kept making little noises, the kind that made David's chest go tight, and also want to punch someone in the face. They made him think of that moment in the warehouse when Patri-not had grabbed Tommy by the shoulder and he'd vanished in a cloud of white-hot acetylene sparks--

Tommy shot upright, chest rising and falling as he panted. His eyes were a wild blue in the low light.

David turned on his side so he could look at Tommy. "You okay?" he asked.

Tommy flinched, like he'd forgotten David was there. "I-- yeah." He rubbed his face hard, scrubbing away dreams, and when he looked up again the wild look had faded. "Sorry, didn't mean to wake you up."

"You didn't. I couldn't sleep."

"Oh."

There was a neon light right outside the window, flashing red and blue, and the colors caught in Tommy's white hair as he pulled his legs against his chest and wrapped his arms around them. David pushed himself into a sitting position, feeling the mattress creak underneath him. He settled back into the headboard, suppressing a groan as bruises pulled. They'd come out relatively unscathed from the fight, but for a technically unpowered human _unscathed_ just meant _not actively bleeding_. "Look, Tommy, if you want to talk--"

"I _don't_." Tommy's voice was fierce.

David said, "Okay then. But, if you do, I'm listening."

After a moment, Tommy nodded. He gradually relaxed as the minutes passed and it became clear that David wasn't going to press further. He came to rest against the headboard, shoulder brushing against David's. David made a decision-- to hell with what Billy Kaplan would think-- and shifted until he could drop his arm around Tommy's shoulders. Tommy stiffened, but didn't pull away.

"What," he said, sounding bewildered.

"Just shut up and relax, Tommy," David said, and tugged him closer. Tommy went willingly enough, ending up draped across David's side, face pressed into his neck, arm around his middle. _Touch-starved_ , David thought with a pang. He tucked his chin into the top of Tommy's head. He still smelled a little like smoke and whatever incense the sun-worshipers had been using; agarwood, maybe.

Time passed, measured only by the flickering neon light. David breathed in and out, feeling Tommy's muscles unlock, his respiration slow until it matched David's.

"It's just-- old stuff," Tommy mumbled eventually. David could feel the breath against his neck as he sighed. "I _should_ be over it by now, it's been years, and I don't even think about it half the time anymore, but I just-- can't stop dreaming about it. Ever since coming back. It's stupid."

David brought his hand up into Tommy's hair, carding his fingers through the soft white strands. _Years_. Tommy wasn't old-- maybe twenty, twenty-one. _Years_ meant Tommy'd been a kid, when whatever had happened-- happened. David wondered if it had to do with those scars.

Again he felt that old longing for his powers.

"It could be a side effect of being stuck wherever Patri-not sent you," he offered. _Where I sent you. Or some future version of myself, at least._ He didn't mention that. Wasn't sure if what he felt was guilt, or anger, or just-- regret.

Tommy shrugged. "Dunno. Could be, I guess. I don't remember much about that. Just-- emptiness." He shivered, hand clenching in the fabric of David's shirt. "It was way too quiet there."

David hummed. "If you wanted noise, why come stay at my place?" he asked. "Why not stay with Billy, or one of the others? I'm not exactly throwing wild parties."

He felt Tommy shrug. "I did, for a few days. But Billy and Teddy are off in their own world, and the others... I dunno. Half of them are new. It was too weird. I miss the old crowd."

 _"I'm_ new," David felt compelled to point out.

"Yeah, but you're--" Tommy shrugged. "--you. I like you."

David laughed a little. "Glad to hear it. Gotta admit I like you too." He'd spent months searching for a guy he'd known for all of a week. He was pretty sure that meant something.

"I noticed," Tommy said. He turned his head to look up at David, blue eyes intense. At some point his hand had slipped under the edge of David's shirt, and David could feel his thumb tracing a line along his hipbone. David felt his heart start to beat faster.

"Look, are we going to have sex or what?" Tommy asked frankly. "Because I gotta tell you, I don't generally spend a whole lot of time cuddling in bed with guys I _don't_ plan to have sex with."

David was startled into a laugh. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Tommy's mouth, feeling heat pool in his stomach as Tommy arched immediately up into it.

"Yeah," he said, voice husky, when he pulled back. "Yeah, we can do that."

**Author's Note:**

> The title was cribbed from the song Speed and Velocity by They Might Be Giants.


End file.
